The Coming of Age of the Lutheran Congregation in Early Modern Amsterdam
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Sabine Hiebsch
Abstract
Contrary to most of the German Lands of the Empire, Lutherans in the Low Countries were a religious minority. In order to establish a congregation in the nascent Dutch republic the Amsterdam Lutherans had to manoeuver between a non-Lutheran authority, the public Reformed Church with the most rights and the highest visibility and other religious minorities. This article describes the influencing factors that helped the Lutherans in this ongoing dynamic and vulnerable process of negotiation. It shows how experiences made by the first generations of Dutch Lutherans in Antwerp were important for the choice to start as a house church. It further explores the international connections of the Amsterdam Lutherans, especially with Scandinavia, that eventually made it possible for them to own two big, publicly visible churches, while still being a religious minority.
Acknowledgments
This article is an elaboration and continuation of research presented at two conferences: The Sixteenth Century Society & Conference in New Orleans in 2014 and the 5th RefoRC Conference in Louvain in 2015. The conference sessions in which the research was presented were organized and sponsored by the research project “The Ambiguous Memory of Nordic Protestantism” (Faculty of Theology, University of Oslo) that is financed by the Norwegian Research Council and in which the author participates.
©2016 by De Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- The Coming of Age of the Lutheran Congregation in Early Modern Amsterdam
- Lutheran Exiles of Christ in the Sixteenth Century
- The Council of Trent and the Residence of Bishops in the Diocese of Cape Verde (1553–1705)
- “Capricious, Seductive, and Insurrectionary”
- “That There Be No Schisms among You”
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- The Coming of Age of the Lutheran Congregation in Early Modern Amsterdam
- Lutheran Exiles of Christ in the Sixteenth Century
- The Council of Trent and the Residence of Bishops in the Diocese of Cape Verde (1553–1705)
- “Capricious, Seductive, and Insurrectionary”
- “That There Be No Schisms among You”
